Culture ministry: some 2m people saw “genocide” exhibits in 2022

January 25, BPN. The “genocide” of the Belarusian people during World War II has become a major theme for museums in 2022, a senior cultural official has told a news conference in Minsk.

About two million people visited the exhibitions, said Iryna Karpovič, a department head at the culture ministry.

“In close cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office, the topic is deeply embedded in museum expositions. Every museum has it,” Karpovič said. She specified that last year, 315 such exhibitions were organized in 152 state museums.

After the 2020 post-election protests, officials in Minsk have been promoting a theory that the Belarusians suffered genocide at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators during WWII. In April 2021 Prosecutor General Andrej Švied announced that his office had opened a genocide case. The prosecutor general also edited a book that likened participants in 2020 peaceful protests to the Nazis.

In January 2022 Alaksandr Łukašenka signed a law that criminalized denial of the genocide. “The implementation of the Law will contribute to preventing distortion of the Great Patriotic War’s outcomes, as well to uniting Belarusian society,” his press service said.

Russian and Belarusian propaganda has also promoted a false narrative that portrays Ukrainian politicians and soldiers as Nazis.